Pagoda By the Water at Zhouzhuang 周庄
Unlike the bus from Shanghai, the bus from Suzhou to Zhouzhuang doesn’t really drop you off at Zhouzhuang itself. Instead, there was a regional bus station where everyone got off. This wasn’t a modern bus station compared to Suzhou, but at least it was decent and clean. Outside the station, there were the expected touts who wait for potential customers. In this case they were two trishaw drivers. The offered us a ride to Zhouzhuang for the sum of CNY 10. I think it should have been much cheaper than that but we just wanted to take the opportunity to try out yet another mode of transport.
Tree Lined Bridge Leading to Zhouzhuang 周庄
As usual, these drivers are the chatty type and try to strike up a conversation with you every time. My Chinese can only go so far though, so I spent the conversation answering as briefly as possible. My friends on the other seem to be having a ball on their trishaw. I was the only passenger so mine was lighter. When we came to a bridge our drivers couldn’t make it up the bridge and asked us to get off so they can push. Along the way, I got a chance to photograph one of the pagodas beside the water. It was really nice.
Our Trishaw Driver Pushing Their Way Up the Bridge
The brief trishaw ride ended soon enough as it wasn’t really that far, actually we could have just walked to the entrance but we were just lazy. The trishaw let us off as close as possible since the road to the entrance is only for pedestrians. My friend got a mild shock, when their driver asked them for CNY 20, explaining that it was CNY 10 each person. This wasn’t really clear from the start and we were midly peeved by this tactic. It was a small amount but at least the could have been more upfront about it. Except for that incident, we loved the ride.
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